Scotland local authority employees are to be balloted on taking strike action.

Thousands of workers, members of the Unite trade union, are to vote on future strike action which will affect in schools and cleansing. 

Wendy Dunsmore, Unite industrial officer said: 

“Unite has served notice to all thirty-two local authorities that we will now ballot our members from 10 June. There has been some acknowledgement by COSLA that the two per cent offer is nowhere near good enough and local government workers deserve a significant increase. However, we now need action not words and more letters, or strike action is on the horizon.”

The ballot will open on 10 June and close on 26 July. If the ballot for industrial action is successful then strike action could begin in August at the beginning of the new school term. 

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities’ (COSLA) offered council workers a 2% wage increase.

It is estimated by the unions that more than half of Scotland’s 250,000 local authority workers are earning less than £25,000 a year for a 37-hour week. A 2% wage increase would do very little for those now already struggling with a cost of living crisis .

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said:

“Unite will now ballot thousands of our members across every one of Scotland’s thirty-two local authorities. The last offer on the table from the employer was a pathetic two per cent. When the broader cost of living has now hit 11.1 per cent, this is a huge pay cut and simply not acceptable when workers face punishing living costs.

“Our members are not putting up with this and they will have their union’s full support in the fight for better jobs, pay and conditions in local government.”